32 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. IX., No. 206 



detic levels ; and Asst. F. W. Perkins will organ- 

 ize his party about Jan. 15 for work on the south 

 coast of Louisiana. All parties on the Pacific 

 coast are out of the field, except those parties 

 engaged in the resurvey of San Francisco Bay 

 and vicinity. Early in April Assistant Pratt will 

 take up the recognizance of the west coast of 

 Washington Territory from Cape Flattery to 

 Gray's Harbor, a very important work. The 

 steamer Bache has arrived at Key West prepara- 

 tory to entering upon field-work on the west 

 coast of Florida. 



— The Cosmos club of Washington held its first 

 regular meeting for this year in its new club- 

 house last Monday evening. The following offi- 

 cers were elected : president, Dr. John S. Billings ; 

 vice-president, Dr. John S. Yarrow ; secretary, 

 T. M. Chatard ; treasurer, William Bruff ; house 

 committee, Mr. J. B. Marcou, Dr. John F. Head, 

 and Mr. William Poindexter ; library committee. 

 Dr. S. M. Burnett, Dr. Newton S. Bates, and Mr. 

 Joseph C. Hornblower. The proposition to in- 

 crease the membership was postponed to a special 

 meeting to be held Jan. 31. 



— Governor McEnery of Louisiana has issued a 

 call for an interstate convention in the interest of 

 stock-raising, dairying, fruit-growing, and general 

 agriculture, to be held at Lake Charles, La., on 

 the 32d, 23d, and 24th of February, 1887. 



— A curious affection exists among the horses 

 of north-western Texas known as ' grass-staggers.' 

 It is caused by their eating the 'loco-weed,' and 

 the affected animals are said to be ' locoed.' At 

 first they lose flesh, and then become weak and 

 staggering, and finally crazy. The Indians be- 

 lieve that an insect is the cause of the disease ; but 

 Dr. Carhart of Texas, in a letter to the Medical 

 record, says that he has examined the weed, but 

 can find no insect life upon it. 



— A remarkable specimen was presented some 

 years ago by the curator of the British museum to 

 the Zoological society of London. It was the 

 body of a chicken whose beak and feet closely 

 resembled those of a parrot. Several such in- 

 stances occurred in the same poultry-yard, and 

 were attributed by the owner to the fact that one 

 of the hens had been frightened by a parrot. 

 Many instances of deformity are on record in the 

 human species, which are popularly attributed to 

 maternal impressions received during the forma- 

 tive period. The number of these is so great as 

 to have led physicians and others to look upon 

 such results as something more than mere coinci- 

 dences. In a recent paper read before the ortho- 

 pedic section of the New York academy of medi- 



cine. Dr. T. L. Stedman discusses the influence of 

 maternal impressions in the etiology of congenital 

 deformities, and produces evidence which seems to 

 indicate that there are laws in development which 

 are as yet but partially understood, and which, 

 when thoroughly investigated, may explain these 

 remarkable instances to which we have alluded, 

 and of which Dr. Stedman gives many striking 

 examples. 



— The presence in New York City of a number 

 of cases of beri-beri, or kak-ke, has re-awakened 

 medical interest in this peculiar disease. The pa- 

 tients came from San Francisco by vessel, and 

 three of them were taken to Bellevue hospital. 

 Two of these died. On the voyage, most of the 

 crew were affected with the disease, and some of 

 them fatally. This affection prevails in Japan, 

 India, South and Central America, and in the 

 islands of the Gulf, and is technically considered 

 to be a multiple neuritis, or an inflammatory 

 condition of the nerves. As a rule, the spinal 

 nerves alone are implicated, but occasionally 

 the cranial nerves as well. It has been demon- 

 strated with a great degree of probability by 

 Cornelissen and Sugenoya that beri-beri is an 

 infectious disease, the specific cause being a mi- 

 cro-organism resembling the bacillus of anthrax, 

 which is found in the blood, muscles, and nerves. 

 In the cases at Bellevue the nature of the disease 

 was not recognized at a sufficiently early stage to 

 enable the physicians to study the microbes, or to 

 make any cultures of them. 



— We are familiar in the east with tumbler- 

 pigeons, and in the Central States there are curi- 

 ous beetles, that, from their habit of rolling along 

 little balls of clay, have received the popular 

 name ' tumble-bugs ; ' but it is upon the plains of 

 the west that one of our common weeds is so 

 modified by its environment, and forms habits so 

 novel, that it loses its eastern name, and is known 

 as ' tumble-weed.' According to C. E. Bessey 

 {Botanical gazette, xi. p. 41), ' ' upon the plains 

 and prairies of the west our common weed Ama- 

 rantus albus grows into a compact plant, whose 

 stout, curving branches give it an approximately 

 spherical form. The autumn winds break the 

 main stem near the ground, and the upper part 

 goes rolling and tumbling before the wind, often 

 for miles. This is an excellent illustration of the 

 effect of climate on the physical development of 

 the plant-body, as in the east the species is a 

 straggling herb, remaining rooted long after its 

 death at the close of the season. Dr. Newberry 

 has told us that it is also known as the 'ghost- 

 plant ' iu allusion to the same habit, bunches flit- 

 ting along by night producing a peculiarly weird 



